Student protests are a consequence of Modi government’s policies, writes Sonia Gandhi
In the past few weeks, peaceful protests by young students across India against the leaking of exam papers and the general decline of the education system have been gaining momentum. Their demands were straightforward and to the point: Indian government accountability and education reform. The Narendra Modi government responded to their courage with cowardice and wanton cruelty, treating them not as heirs of the future but as enemies of the nation. On 20 July 2026, the day of infamy, the Delhi Police and the Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) tried to quell them with unprovoked violence, using brutal lathicharges and tear gas. Dozens of peaceful protesters were injured. Even students returning home were not spared as lathis rained down on their backs and heads. The nation saw some of the most depressing images of youths whose bodies were scarred by bullets, the use of which the Union Home Secretary himself would no doubt have approved. The videos of that day are etched in our memories and stirred our collective conscience. Only the government and its captive media are spinning stories about this spontaneous upsurge of protests. It’s time to say loud and clear: Stop. These are our sons and daughters, our young men and women.
The Modi government routinely uses violence over dialogue. The pattern is clear, from farmers to activists. But this week, even a government as insensitive as the one that set new standards for authoritarian rule has sunk to a new low. Instead of reaching out with understanding to our future doctors and engineers, teachers and civil servants, entrepreneurs and nation builders, it has unleashed the repressive power of the state on them. This cannot be forgiven or forgotten.
The old toolkit of branding any and all dissent as anti-national has been retooled to diffuse student agitation. The Modi government reached deep into its bag of tricks to vilify and spread conspiracies when what it should have done is to introspect on its policies that motivated the protests.
Decline of public education
The first major issue is the withdrawal of the Modi government from public education. It has reduced the proportion of its total budget spent on school education by 50% and on higher education by 33%. Does anyone see the point in such an absurd retreat? Over the past 12 years, Modi’s government has closed nearly one million public schools while overseeing the opening of 43,000 private schools — much of them run by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, which incidentally presides over India’s largest network of private schools along with its affiliates. In higher education, the University Grants Commission reduced its grants to universities and forced them to take out loans at high interest rates. In order to repay them, public universities proceeded to increase fees.
Due to the unavailability of high quality and affordable public education, families in India have been forced to spend out of pocket for their children’s education. The total amount families spend on NEET (National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test) coaching alone is as much as the Modi government’s total investment in public education. The cost of private education deters thousands of talented students who come from modest backgrounds but have enormous potential. Equally critical, however, these expenditures also place a crushing burden of impossibly high expectations on our students. Indian youth are very aware of how much their families have invested in the dream of their academic and professional success. The acute despair of our students is a direct result of the privatization and commercialization of education.
Broken test system, success problem
The second problem is the gutting of India’s public examination system, which has undergone processes of centralization, privatization and politicization. The traditional practice of universities and states setting their own exams to suit their unique needs has been replaced by centralized exams administered by the National Testing Agency (NTA), such as the Common University Entrance Test (CUET). The NTA itself is a hapless, chronically understaffed body that relies entirely on an army of private contractors to carry out its investigations. It is also well known that the paper makers, translators and experts employed by NTA are not renowned academicians from leading Indian institutions but are mostly average individuals with political affiliations. The end result of this process has had dire consequences – there have been 152 paper leaks across the country in the last 12 years, including nine by the NTA itself since its inception in 2017. Even the most talented and hard-working students find themselves failing simply because the authorities chose to profit from the examination system without facing any significant consequences for their criminality.
A third problem is the difficulty of succeeding in the Indian education system. Quality and well-paid job opportunities after graduation are a rarity today, partly due to the growing monopolization of the economy. The unemployment rate of our young graduates is consistently high, averaging around 40% in the last few years. Competition for the few remaining jobs is intense, and our students have never been so ill-equipped to compete for them. The appointment of unscrupulous vice-chancellors selected for their party loyalty and the subsequent recruitment of politically connected but unqualified teachers has created a teaching crisis in our public universities. At a time when workplace skill requirements have become much more demanding, India’s higher education system has remained tied to outdated systems and politically motivated curriculum changes, dangerously out of touch with evolving methods and standards, and especially unable to keep pace with an AI world. Students are faced with trying to succeed in an increasingly demanding system for which they have nowhere near enough resources.
The education system is therefore increasingly expensive, prone to corruption and difficult to succeed in. However, the final nail in the coffin was the Modi government’s consistent and conscious policy of shirking responsibility and avoiding talks about education in good faith. It deliberately approved the National Education Policy 2020 without seeking consensus or subjecting it to parliamentary debate. The NTA itself has never been brought before Parliament and remains a company that was set up by the Union Cabinet without any accountability mechanisms. The Minister of Education infamously displayed his own disregard for responsibility by publicly rejecting the recommendation of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education to strengthen the NTA simply because it included members of the opposition. His reluctance to step down from office despite these monumental failures only further inflamed public opinion.
Roots of protest
The student protests are a natural consequence of these interconnected forces: today’s bleak educational environment that evokes only hopelessness, and the typical arrogance and unwillingness of the Modi government to be accountable or constructive. The brutality meted out by police personnel under the direct authority of the Union Home Minister on student protesters is hardly unprecedented for this regime. We all vividly remember how armed police and paramilitary forces ravaged university campuses during protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill – National Register of Citizens 2020. The unacceptable excesses against Indian women wrestlers can never be erased from our memories.
The Modi government has not only degraded India’s educational environment, but has also made a habit of acting with complete impunity, supreme self-delusion and callous insensitivity. Indian students call Modi regime a bluff. It is our moral, political and constitutional duty to stand by them and protect their future.
Sonia Gandhi is the President of the Congress Parliamentary Party
Published – 24 Jul 2026 0:16 IST